2008 Woodie Awards
KSU steals victory at Devaney
Spencer Schubert
Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: Sports
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Fortunately for her, her team did not.
The 18th-ranked Wildcats (15-5, 7-0 in Big 12 Conference) survived a thriller Wednesday night as they took down the Cornhuskers (15-6, 4-3 Big 12) 77-75 in a game that was decided in the final 30 seconds.
"It's tough to take, considering we just came off a tough one with Baylor," said NU senior forward Danielle Page. "We could have won that game, and we were in a position to win it."
Wednesday night's game was one that saw two technical fouls, 28 personal fouls and six total players score in double figures. To say it was emotional would be an understatement.
Both technical fouls were charged to Patterson, with the second coming down the stretch in the second half. With 8:06 left in the game, select concession-stand attendants had a surprise visit from the Wildcat coach, who was ejected.
"I got to see (the rest of the game) over there in the concession stand," Patterson said. "I got to see it on video over there, and our team continued to keep their wits about them and keep their heads and make plays."
The playmaking for KSU started and ended with Wildcat senior Kimberly Dietz. The guard racked up a game-high 26 points on the Big Red, with 16 of those coming in the first half.
No basket was more important than a Dietz 3-pointer near the end of the game to keep the heat on the Huskers. NU had trailed 72-70 with less than two minutes left in the game when sophomore guard Yvonne Turner knocked down a go-ahead 3-pointer as the game approached the minute mark.
The Wildcats charged right down the floor and found Dietz in the corner, where she knocked down a matching 3-pointer to put KSU up by two once again.
Patterson couldn't talk enough about her senior's clutch play.
"The 3-pointer that Dietz made is as big a shot as any shot in the game," Patterson said. "Our team continued to make quality plays that got us to the rim. I cannot say enough about how this senior has stepped up."
But Dietz wasn't the only difference-maker in the Big 12 North bout. KSU also saw Shalee Lehning, Marlies Gipson and Ashley Sweat put up double figures with 19, 15 and 10 points respectively.
For the Huskers, the picture was more spread out, as it has been all year for NU. Page led all Huskers with 20 points followed closely by junior forward Kelsey Griffin with 19. Freshman Kaitlyn Burke and junior Tay Hester both had nine points while five other Huskers got their name in the score column.
It wasn't enough, however, as KSU escaped with a win in what many Husker players and coaches thought should have been an overtime game.
After Dietz's 3-pointer put the Wildcats back up two, Griffin knocked down a quick bucket to tie the game at 75. The ball then came into the hands of KSU sophomore Ashley Sweat, and she had only a few seconds to get off a potential game-winning shot.
And she did just that. Sweat was able to put in a baseline layup with only seven seconds left. Turner then rushed the ball back down to the other end and had a chance at a fairly uncontested layup.
Turner's layup was strong, and Griffin had the chance for the putback, but that was also strong, giving KSU the 77-75 win.
Yori said the final play of the game didn't go her way Wednesday night, but it was the plays that happened throughout the whole game that will have her cleaning up a little in preparation for the Tigers.
"This game was not lost on the last play," Yori said. "It was lost in the first half, in the inability to be focused defensively and shut them down in the areas that we needed to. We did not do a good job, in my mind, of following our gameplan."
spencerschubert@dailynebraskan.com
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